Executive Yuan spokesperson Kolas Yotaka has been using the Romanized version of her Aboriginal name for at least 10 years — but some Taiwanese apparently find it offensive.
Kolas on Friday last week had to respond to a note in the Presidential Office’s suggestion box asking her to use her “Chinese name,” which just shows how far the nation has yet to go to fully embrace its diversity and become an inclusive society. Some people seem to forget that Aborigines are just as Taiwanese as the nation’s Han majority.
The note asked Kolas to stop using her “English” Aboriginal name — which is a misnomer, as Roman script is used for transliteration of most languages around the world, including Taiwan’s numerous Aboriginal languages and even Hoklo (also known as Taiwanese) at times.
The incident was as an opportunity for the government to remind the public to respect one another’s cultures, as only education can combat ignorance and discrimination.
The Presidential Office handled the letter quite gracefully, with spokesman Alex Huang (黃重諺) sending a handwritten letter to the person who filed it.
Aside from saying that Kolas’ name is completely legal, Huang wrote: “Like Han Chinese naming customs, Aboriginal names come from a rich cultural heritage, and are also the greatest blessings from their parents and family. I suggest that you learn more about the issue so you can better understand your fellow citizens. Let’s be proud together of Taiwan’s beautiful diversity.”
It could not have been better said — and kudos to the government for showing class in handling the issue.
It should be basic knowledge to every Taiwanese that Aborigines were forced to use Chinese names (after being forced to adopt Japanese names by the previous colonizers) when the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) arrived. While it made sense for the nation’s Han majority to revert to their Chinese names, many Aborigines were “given” new Chinese names, often at random, by household registration officials.
The 1980s saw the birth of the “Return My True Name” (還我名字) movement, as Aborigines began their fight for the right to legally use their Aboriginal names. It was an arduous and lengthy process, with the government in 1995 only conceding that they could use the Chinese version of their Aboriginal names. It took another six years for them to win the right to use the Romanized version of their names.
With many celebrities and other public figures also using the Romanized version of their Aboriginal names, it is disappointing that one’s personal choice continues to be an issue, even after the passing of the Aboriginal Languages Development Act (原住民族語言發展法) in 2017.
Kolas already addressed the problem when she assumed her post in 2018 after some netizens mocked her name. She said at the time that she was willing to tirelessly and patiently communicate with people who question her name, telling them to respect her decision, as Aboriginal culture is also an integral part of Taiwan.
There is nothing more personal than one’s given name, and to question one that is perfectly legal is cultural bullying and a continuation of centuries-old colonial oppression of Aborigines. The government was right in publicizing the issue on social media to let its message reach more people.
The conflict in the Middle East has been disrupting financial markets, raising concerns about rising inflationary pressures and global economic growth. One market that some investors are particularly worried about has not been heavily covered in the news: the private credit market. Even before the joint US-Israeli attacks on Iran on Feb. 28, global capital markets had faced growing structural pressure — the deteriorating funding conditions in the private credit market. The private credit market is where companies borrow funds directly from nonbank financial institutions such as asset management companies, insurance companies and private lending platforms. Its popularity has risen since
The Donald Trump administration’s approach to China broadly, and to cross-Strait relations in particular, remains a conundrum. The 2025 US National Security Strategy prioritized the defense of Taiwan in a way that surprised some observers of the Trump administration: “Deterring a conflict over Taiwan, ideally by preserving military overmatch, is a priority.” Two months later, Taiwan went entirely unmentioned in the US National Defense Strategy, as did military overmatch vis-a-vis China, giving renewed cause for concern. How to interpret these varying statements remains an open question. In both documents, the Indo-Pacific is listed as a second priority behind homeland defense and
Every analyst watching Iran’s succession crisis is asking who would replace supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Yet, the real question is whether China has learned enough from the Persian Gulf to survive a war over Taiwan. Beijing purchases roughly 90 percent of Iran’s exported crude — some 1.61 million barrels per day last year — and holds a US$400 billion, 25-year cooperation agreement binding it to Tehran’s stability. However, this is not simply the story of a patron protecting an investment. China has spent years engineering a sanctions-evasion architecture that was never really about Iran — it was about Taiwan. The
After “Operation Absolute Resolve” to capture former Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro, the US joined Israel on Saturday last week in launching “Operation Epic Fury” to remove Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his theocratic regime leadership team. The two blitzes are widely believed to be a prelude to US President Donald Trump changing the geopolitical landscape in the Indo-Pacific region, targeting China’s rise. In the National Security Strategic report released in December last year, the Trump administration made it clear that the US would focus on “restoring American pre-eminence in the Western hemisphere,” and “competing with China economically and militarily
RSS